Read the most recent edition of
the Federal Employee:

In a
Congressional hearing Thursday, Congressman
Randy Forbes (R-VA) warned of the dire
consequences facing the Department of Defense
and its employees if $56.7 billion in scheduled
sequestration cuts were to be made on January
2nd. In total, Forbes estimates 89,000 civilian
jobs will be lost in the RIF if Congress
cannot come to a separate agreement to offset
the cuts.

Acting
Assistant Secretary of Defense for Readiness
and Force Management Frederick Vollrath told
the subcommittee that RIF notices would be
dispensed as early as September. According to
the Federal Times,
the Department must notify Congress of any
layoffs 45 days before officially distributing
employees' 60 days’ notice of the pending RIF.
With sequestration set to take effect on
January 2, this means pink slips will sit in
employees hands as early as September 18th –
less than two months from today.

As NFFE reported last
week, another $57 billion in
sequestration cuts will have an even greater
impact at other federal agencies, costing an
estimated 229,000 jobs through 2013.

“If
these cuts are allowed to gut agencies across
government, 2013 will make the previous years’
pay freezes look like child’s play,” said NFFE
Legislative Director Randy Erwin. “We can’t
allow our public service to be gutted overnight
simply because Congress can’t come together to
reach a sensible and fair deficit reduction
agreement. Federal employees throughout
government need to stand up and let their
public officials know that slashing hundreds of
thousands of federal jobs is
unacceptable.”

NFFE is
urging all federal employees to call their
members of Congress and tell them that allowing
sequestration to cut hundreds of thousands of
jobs is unacceptable. You can reach them by
using the Capitol Switchboard: (202)
224-3121.